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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

June 16, 2013

The foolish notion of universal redemption (the doctrine that Christ died for everyone) is as blasphemous as it is foolish. We rejoice to hear God say of our Redeemer, “He shall not fail!” The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage. Every sinner for whom the Lord Jesus died shall live forever with him.

·      Bro. Frank Hall is preaching today for Millsite Baptist Church in Cottageville, WV.

·      I am scheduled to preach tonight for Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, TN, where Bro. Gabe Stalnaker is pastor. — Monday through Wednesday I will preach for Buck Mountain Baptist Church in Roan Mountain, TN, where Bro. Gary Perkins is pastor. — Bro. Matt Johnson will be here to preach the gospel to you tonight. Bro. Johnson is pastor of Rocky Ford Baptist Church in Liberty, KY. — Bro. Larry Criss will be here to preach the gospel to you on Tuesday night. Bro. Criss is pastor of Fairmont Grace Church in Sylacauga, AL.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Mabel Dix-20th    Bill Rolley-21st    June Roundtree-21st    Evan Rolley-22nd

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Oscar & Nancy Bailey-18th     Ron & Pam Wood-22nd

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What Wonders in My Savior Meet! — Don Fortner

(Tune: #131 — Lift Up, Lift Up Your Voices Now — LM)

1.     What wonders in my Savior meet —

His head, His hands, His side, His feet

Present to my astonished view,

Eternal glories, ever new!

2.     Poor and despised, yet rich and loved;—

Humbled to death — His throne unmoved!

God’s Servant and our sov’reign Lord,

Reviled and murdered, yet adored!

3.     Pardon and life are His to give;

He died that God’s elect might live,

Became a curse to bring us grace —

He is the Lord our Righteousness!

4.     He had not where to lay His head,

Although the worlds were by Him made!

He hungered, though He thousands fed,

Sinless, and yet for sin He bled!

5.     The Father’s co-eternal Son

Made sin for us — The Holy One!

The Portion all believers crave,

He’s Man to suffer — God to save!

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Shante’ Birchum (AM) Dee Dee Raneri (PM)     Tuesday: Debbie Bartley

“Made the Righteousness of God in Him”

2 Corinthians 5:21

The first word translated “made” in 2 Corinthians 5:21 as it relates to Christ being made sin is not a legal term, as some imagine, but a word that carries the idea of “create.” It is in the past tense and implies that he who was made sin for us was personally involved in the work. God the Father, by one great, mysterious act, gathered together all the sins of all his elect throughout all the ages of time, and caused his darling Son to be sin for us.

      But when Paul tells us that we are “made the righteousness of God in him,” another word is used for “made.” When he speaks of us being “made the righteousness of God in” Christ, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to use another word altogether. The word translated “made” in the second part of 2 Corinthians 5:21 is a present tense, passive verb, implying total passiveness on our part, and means “continually cause to become.” Paul is telling us that those for whom Christ was made sin God continually causes to become the righteousness of God in him without us doing a thing.

Eternally

Our great, all-wise, eternally gracious God made us righteous before the world was in Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in his sovereign, eternal purpose of grace (Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:3-6; 2 Timothy 1:9-10; Jude 1). If we were blessed of God with all spiritual blessings before the world began and accepted in the Beloved, it was not as unrighteous, but as the righteousness of God in Christ.

Judicially

We were made to become the righteousness of God judicially, in a legal sense, when the Lord Jesus died as our Substitute under the wrath of God, satisfying divine justice for us. When he had put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, he obtained eternal redemption for us, and we were made to become the righteousness of God in him by divine justice in justification (Romans 4:25; 5:12, 17-21).

Experimentally

But this matter of being made the righteousness of God in Christ, while it is a work with which we have no involvement, is not just a matter of law, any more than Christ’s being made sin was just a matter of law. It is not something that takes place altogether outside our experience, any more than Christ being made sin was outside his experience.

      Sinners are made the righteousness of God in Christ experimentally in the new birth, when we are made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). That holy thing in us that is born of God, that John tells us cannot sin, is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). We experience this blessed thing (being made the righteousness of God) in the inmost depths of our souls, in the constant assurance of our access to, acceptance with, and the forgiveness of our sins by our God (1 John 1:7-2:2).

      We are in Christ, in whom alone God is well pleased. That means he is well pleased with us in him (Matthew 17:5). Our sacrifices are accepted of God as a sweet-smelling savor in Christ (1 Peter 2:5). Our sins are never imputed to us, but perpetually forgiven, because we are one with him who was once made sin for us, in whom we are perpetually made to become the righteousness of God.

Absolutely

Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, every sinner who trusts him is made to become the righteousness of God in him absolutely (2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 1:12). Discerning the Lord’s body, that is to say, knowing our need of a Substitute and knowing the Substitute himself, trusting his finished work and trusting him, sinners like you and me are worthy to enter his church, worthy to call upon his name, worthy to receive the Lord’s Table, and worthy to enter into and possess forever his glory!

Everlastingly

We shall be made to become the righteousness of God everlastingly in the last day in resurrection glory. We shall be raised in righteousness. We shall be declared righteous according to the record book of heaven at the Day of Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15; Jeremiah 50:20). We shall be declared righteous to wondering worlds to the glory of our God forever (Ephesians 2:7). Then we shall forever begin to enjoy, in such experimental reality as words cannot describe, the blessedness of being made to become the righteousness of God in Christ (Revelation 21:2-5; 22:1-6).

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More Mysterious than Imputation

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53: 6).

Having no personal sin, being incapable of any, but yet taking the sin of others upon himself — it has been the custom of theologians to say — by imputation; but I question whether the use of that word, although correct enough as it is understood by us, may not have lent some color to the misrepresentations of those who oppose the doctrine of substitution.

I will not say that the sins of God’s people were imputed to Christ, though I believe they were; but it seems to me that in a way more mysterious than that which imputation would express, the sins of God’s people were actually laid upon Jesus Christ; that in the view of God, not only was Christ treated as if he had been guilty, but the very sin itself was, I know not how, but according to the text it was somehow laid upon the head of Christ Jesus. — “For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Is it not written, “He shall bear,” not merely the punishment of their sin, nor the imputation of their sin, but “He shall bear their iniquities”?

Our sin is laid on Jesus in even a deeper and truer sense than is expressed by the term imputation. I do not think I can express it, nor convey the idea that I have in my own mind, but while Jesus never was and never could be a sinner — God forbid that the blasphemous thought should ever cross our lips or dwell upon our heart! — yet the sin of his people was literally and truly laid upon him.         ——C. H. Spurgeon

The Grace Bulletin

June 16, 2013

Grace Baptist Church of Danville

2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com

Donald S. Fortner, Pastor

Schedule of Regular Services

Sunday

10:00 A.M. Bible Classes

10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service

6:30   P.M. Evening Worship Service

Tuesday

7:30 P.M. Mid-Week Worship Service

Television Broadcasts in Danville

Channel 6 — Sunday Morning 7:45 A.M.

Channel 6 — Wednesday Evening 6:00 P.M.

Channel 6 — Friday Evening 7:00 P.M.

Television Broadcasts in Harrodsburg

Channel 6 — Sunday Afternoon 3:00 P.M.

Channel 6 — Friday Evening 6:00 P.M.

Web Pages

http://www.DonFortner.com

http://www.FreegraceRadio.com

http://www.Grace-eBooks.com

Don Fortner

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